In this episode we chat with Padma Lakshmi, host of the hit reality cooking competition, Top Chef. Top Chef Seattle is set to begin tomorrow on Bravo, and Padma talks with us about what it's like to host the show, some of the odder moments, and what made shooting in Seattle interesting. She also gives us some cooking and fall entertaining tips, and demonstrates the Nespresso U coffee maker. Padma even tries to school me on fall season entertaining tips so that I can up my game. Check out the full interview in this episode!

Advertisement

In this episode we bring you a look at the first US-based Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. United Airlines is the first US carrier to receive the latest mid-sized craft from Boeing, and we were able to attend the unveiling and get a tour of the interior of the plane. United Airlines Senior VP of Sales, Dave Hilfman, walks us through the deal and features of the aircraft.

The Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB charging is a gadget that we bring with us pretty much everywhere we go. In fact, we have three of them in different rooms at Gear Live, plus another couple that we keep in travel bags. It's become an essential gadget. Why? It's a surge protector with three grounded outlets, and also includes two USB charge ports as well. That means you can power up to five devices at once with this bad boy. They typically cost $19.99, but you can grab one today for $11.99 with free shipping, saving you 40%, with coupon code EXM65392. Definitely worth it if you've got a lot of gadgets, or if you spend time going from place to place.

The Federal Aviation Administration has granted American Airlines pilots approval to use iPads during flights, without having to power them off during takeoff and landing.

"What we did was we gave them approval to use iPads as an 'electronic flight bag,'" FAA spokesman Les Dorr confirmed, noting that the official OK was given on Dec. 1.

An electronic flight bag is the paperless version of the traditional flight bag, which weighs about 38 pounds and is comprised of operating manuals, navigational charts, handbooks, checklists, logbooks, weather information, and just about anything a pilot needs to fly a plane. By contrast, the iPad-based flight bag weighs under a pound and a half and has all the necessary materials loaded in app form.

Apple iPads have been used in American's cockpits since June, but because they're considered a "Class 1" device, pilots have had to turn them off during takeoff and landing since then, absent FAA approval.

Oink, the service started by Kevin Rose's new incubator, Milk, is now live. You can download the companion app, Oink Builder, on the App Store now for free. Oink allows you to rank and rate the things around you. Unlike other services, like Yelp, that have you rate places, Oink is about rating the things inside the places, rather than the places themselves. Hit the video above to see what we mean.

If you've ever been cheated out of a window seat on a flight, you'll appreciate the concept plane Airbus just revealed at an airshow in Paris. In its vision of what air travel might be like in 2050, the aircraft manufacturer showed a plane with a transparent fuselage, giving all passengers a panoramic view of what's outside.

"The idea is to have a technology for the fuselage that's a bit like bones of birds that allows to have large spaces that can turn transparent, in order to look outside and 'live' the panorama in which you are flying," Charles Champion, Airbus' head of engineering, told London's Telegraph (see video below).

Airbus didn't hold back its designers' imaginations in conceiving features for the future plane. Besides a see-through hull that would make Wonder Woman consider a copyright infringement lawsuit, the concept aircraft would also discard the traditional class system of first, business, and economy. Instead, the Airbus from the future would have three zones: a Vitalizing Zone, with "organically grown" seats that can massage you; a recreational Interaction Zone, with pop-up "pods" for things like private dinners and a holographic gaming wall; and a Smart Tech Zone, where the seats adapt perfectly to individuals' size and shape.

Passengers on American Airlines flights are about to get a new perk. Instead of craning their necks to catch reruns of "Monk" and excerpts from "The Tonight Show" on tiny aisle TV sets, they'll be able to wirelessly stream content to their personal devices from the comfort of their own seats.

American announced Tuesday that it will begin testing an inflight streaming service, created through a partnership with Aircell, that gives customers choices of movies and TV shows that they can stream to Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the air.

"American was the first North American airline to launch inflight Wi-Fi, and today we again set a new industry standard as the first domestic airline to test inflight streaming video content," American's vice president of marketing, Rob Friedman, said in a statement. "We know our customers want to be connected on the ground and in the sky, so we are working hard to stay on the leading edge of connectivity through technology enhancements like this."

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a law that would bar the Obama administration from limiting shipments of lithium-ion batteries by air.

The proposed rule by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the FAA would have eliminated exceptions for small lithium batteries, classifying them as "Class 9" hazardous cargo, and requiring a number of labeling and other safety regulations.

The House will have to reconcile its legislation with the Senate before President Obama can sign a unified joint bill, as Bloomberg noted.

There have been numerous incidents of batteries short-circuiting, and many of those have involved airplanes. (The last major battery incident involved Sony, in 2008; that recall then, however, did not cover airplanes.) The proposed rule noted that out of 21 and 44 incidents involving lithium batteries since 1991 involved passenger aircraft; of those, 16 involved carry-on luggage, and one involved checked baggage. Twenty-three incidents involved cargo aircraft, presumably in pallets of batteries being transported by air.

There was a time when a jaunt through a foreign country meant stashing a translation guide on your pocket so that you could whip it out at a moment's notice to read a sign or understand a spoken word. It's a rudimentary system that's worked for ages, but Quest Visual looks to change the game with its Word Lens free iPhone (free, but language packs cost $4.99) app, which translates printed text on the fly.

How It Works
The concept behind Word Lens is a simple one: You point your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, or fourth generation iPod touch's camera at printed text and the app translates the word on the fly simply by tapping the green button in the toolbar. That ability isn't included by default; you have to purchase one of the $4.99 language packs. Unfortunately, only two packs are available at the moment—English to Spanish, and Spanish to English—so the selection is extremely limited. Other undisclosed languages are in the works.

Self-weighing luggage. What an awesome idea. No, seriously—have you traveled lately? The airlines are going crazy with their checked baggage fees, number of bags checked fees, cost per pound fees (what is this, the produce section?) and the like. The folks over at Expert Verdict have built a roller suitcase that sells for just $100 that has a built-in scale and digital display. You pack your stuff, and it will tell you how much it all weighs. You can even have it give you that information in pounds or kilograms. Yeah, we know. Why didn’t we think of this first?